One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is its energetic commentary on the human experience. It’s interested in topics such as friendship, work-life balance, and finding greater purpose, but it always presents them with gusto, never using them as an excuse to drone in your ear. Ironically, nonhuman characters such as this series’ dragons are great tools to explore these issues – their lack of familiarity with human customs and behavior lets the show be a bit more direct in its messaging. Other anime with anthropomorphized casts tend to use their animal natures to drive the story, which often results in sensationalist plotting, but that’s not the case here. Miss Kobayashi’s dragons exist in the real world (or an ideal version of it) and seek fulfillment in ordinary life, despite their unearthly proficiency at nearly every task they try.
That grounded approach is what helps Kobayashi-san’s dragons feel credible in human form. If we examine Ilulu’s story thus far, we can see this strategy on display – even though she’s a vengeful winged lizard, she was won over by kindness and empathy, and now she’s subject to feelings of guilt for her past actions. Even though she wants to befriend Kanna and Saikawa, she doesn’t feel worthy to participate in a simple game of cards, going so far as to turn down Lucoa’s offer to reverse time and undo her destructive behavior. Feelings of unworthiness were a big theme in episode 3, along with the key to their easing: community. Ilulu might have stewed in her shame forever without someone her own age to talk to, but that outcome was avoided thanks to Lucoa’s scheming and Saikawa’s willingness to lend an ear. Most importantly, she didn’t have to earn her place in the card game – it was freely given, even though she had done wrong in the past. With this story, I think Maidragon made the argument that community is a human right, and that rehabilitation is a key part of securing that right for everyone.
Equally focused on unworthiness was Kobayashi and Tohru’s maid-themed plot (though it didn’t have quite so many layers as Ilulu’s). After learning about the self-excluding attitude that her master had formed around maid uniforms, Tohru set out to design one that would make her feel worthy of the garment, but she didn’t do it alone. Once again, community was the key to resolving an issue, this time with a powwow of dragons and human otaku to brainstorm what the outfit ought to look like. Its appearance ended up being inconsequential, of course – what mattered was the fact that Kobayashi’s friends showed up and encouraged her, especially Georgie. I’m not at all a fan of Yuuto Gokou’s breathy delivery in the role, but her dialogue worked like a charm in this instance, shaping Kobayashi’s self-image to be a positive factor in deciding what to wear and how to wear it. All the maid talk was pretty fluffy (much like Tohru’s search for a hobby later in the episode), but its underlying message fit nicely with the same ideas from earlier in the week.
Episode 4 was more of a hangout with the cast, given the amusement park trip and Elma and Tohru’s stroll about town. We did visit Kobayashi and Elma’s office for a bit, which gave Maidragon an opportunity to talk about improving at one’s job, maintaining a consistent work ethic, avoiding burnout, etc. There was a little bit of that in the premiere of this season, too, and I think it worked better there, since it provided a link between Kobayashi’s indoctrinated workaholism and a brand new character’s learned hatred of humans. By contrast, this new side story seemed like a way to inject a little more Elma into the show, but she’s one of my favorites, so I’m totally okay with that. I also liked her neighborhood patrol with Tohru, especially their search for a “suspicious person” who ended up being Fafnir – the shot of him dancing wildly in the background as the girls read the bulletin with his description sent my sides into orbit. Overall, this installment was less thought-provoking than the previous one, but it was every bit as fun. Kobayashi-san is on a roll so far this season, so I’ll take the show in whichever mode I can get!
